If you’ve been eyeballing my Twitter, you know that Evie is here! But first things first. We got to the hospital at the bell toll of 10:00am and got set up right away in our “holding room”. I call it that because it’s the room right next to the doors to the operating room and it’s the same room I had to sit and wait in when Liam was born. We watched some really strange things on TV, including a program that included time-lapse photography of a decomposing cow. It was way wrong. But it kept us busy.

Lucky us though, we got in right on time. I was taken back to the OR five minutes past noon. I won’t detail anything here (I’ll leave that for my birth story post!). Needless to say, Evie made her arrival into the world at 12:29pm, weighing a grand total of 6 pounds and 8 and a half ounces. So this means that Violet won the “What Will She Weigh” contest! Violet, shoot me an email at callistawolf AT gmail DOT com and I’ll get your addy so I can send you a little somethin’. Though Southernbelle gets an honorable mention for getting the closest guess in on her time of birth. Way to go guys! And thanks to EVERYONE for putting in guesses. It was SO fun to read them while I was busy freaking out about having a baby. Heh.

I’m beat. I’ve got lots of stories to share with you all. I’ll leave it at that for now. In the meantime, it looks as if I WILL get to watch “LOST” tonight. Woo hoo!

She is absolutely adorable. I mean, don’t take my word for it. Take a look for yourselves…

^{The cute is threatening to eat us all.}

^{Making faces already}

^{I dare say she’s razzing us}

^{Harry is already in love}

^{Mutual admiration society starring Kile’s mom and Harry}

^{Liam surprised us by being so interested in her. He even tried to give her a kiss. Unprovoked!}

Tags: birth, c-section, Evelyn
Filed under Evelyn |

Okay folks. This is it. We’re counting down HOURS here. The end is nigh. The beginning is imminent. Life, as we know it, will be turned on it’s ear. Are you scared yet? No? Cuz I am. Heh. Seriously though. Very excited. Very nervous. I can’t keep a thought in my head for more than two seconds at a time. It’s really rather pathetic.

In other news, I had my last NST this morning. Good times were had by all. Except maybe Evie who fell asleep about 5 or 10 minutes into the darned thing and kept her heart rate at a steady 120bpm the rest of the hour. Go figure. But all systems are go for tomorrow.

So here’s the drill: My c-section is scheduled for 12 noon (pacific time, yo) and I need to be down at the hospital by 10 am. We’ll probably leave here at 9:30 or so. Even so, I’ll try to throw up a post of some sort (something that probably says, “OH. MY. GOD.”) before we leave. I will be leaving the laptop in the van until I have a postpartum room all set up (along with the rest of my crap, of which I have lots), but I will have my cellphone on me. Which means two things, a) I will be able to check email, though it would be considerably more difficult to send email and b) I can twitter to my heart’s content. I can also conceivably “post to my blog” through flickr. Which is how I do the majority of my Wordless Sunday posts. And this will probably how the initial “announcement” is made. I’m trying to educate Kile on what media he is expected to take at what point throughout the day. I want video of the actual birth. But I want stills of her on the table and being brought to me. Somewhere in there, I want him to take a picture with my cellphone so that it can be sent to flickr and posted to the blog. WHEW.

So I guess my point here is that if you are interested in updates, keep an eye on Twitter, Flickr and eventually, the blog here. Once I do get settled in, I plan to fire up the laptop, post pictures to flickr in earnest and make a nice decent blog post. That probably won’t happen until evening sometime. Again, this is all pacific time, of course.

And, in case you don’t know, I am beyond thrilled at everyone’s interest and excitement in my big news. You all totally rock, you know that? I love each and every one of your comments. Your encouragement means more to me than you could possibly know.

I also have a little fun in store for you all. I decided to make a little contest out of how big you all think this baby will end up being. Harry was 7lbs 5oz at 40weeks 2days. Jackson was 6lbs even at 38weeks even. Liam was 4lbs 15oz at 37weeks even. Now, at my 35week ultrasound, the doctor thought that she weighed 5lbs 9oz. A pretty good estimate, but who knows, really.

Tomorrow I will be 37weeks 2days pregnant. What do you think her weight will be? The winner with the closest guess will be awarded Something Fabulous (that I haven’t figured out what it is yet). But you can rest assured it will be Fabulous. So whaddya say? And, in case of any “ties”, I will break it by having you all guess what TIME she will be born. Now, I know I said I’m scheduled 12pm, but we all know how these things go. I could get bumped because of an emergency or whatever. And I’m talking EXACT time. If two people guess 6lbs 2oz but one guesses 12:05 and one guesses 12:30 and she weighs 6lbs 2oz and is born at 12:25, the second person wins. Sound fair? Sound like a plan?

Let the guessing begin!

Tags: birth, c-section, contest, Evelyn
Filed under Pregnant? |

After some unforeseen delays and waiting around, Liam was born this afternoon at 2:00 on the nose, Pacific time of course. He was born with a lusty cry, much to everyone’s delight. And that lusty cry continued as they carted him off to the table (seen at right) to clean and examine.

He was small… IS small. 4 pounds, 15 ounces. :blink 18 1/2 inches long. And some BIG feet. So I know he’ll grow like a weed from here on out, just like his big brother. But oh so tiny right now. Which is another reason why the lusty cry was music to our ears.

He hasn’t had any trouble breathing so far, and it’s been a good six and a half hours since he was born. He scored 9 and 9 on his Apgar scores as well, so he is just nearly perfect! What am I saying?! He *is* perfect!

Our c-section was bumped back due to an emergency c-section that had to get in before us. They’ve had a LOT of c/s’s today, apparently. But the surgery couldn’t have gone better and was over, start to finish, in 30 minutes. Wow!

I’ve been doing great since, feeling pretty good (despite the expected soreness, etc). But this isn’t really about me now, is it? Naw, even *I* dont’ want to talk about myself. Because little Liam is the STAR.

Harry and my parents have been by to visit already and you see we got some pictures of the two together. He was overwhelmed, understandably, at first. Very nervous of the whole situation. Worried a bit, too, about me and the baby.

But he loves holding him and has a bazillion questions about him already. And I? Am so proud I could bust. Because I was finally able to give my son a sibling. And I absolutely can’t get enough of seeing both of them together!

Right now, we’re settling into the evening together. Breastfeeding might be a bit of an issue for a day or two. He’s just SO small and isn’t opening his mouth real wide. We’ve given him a little formula, simply because his blood sugar levels are so important with him being so small and a bit on the early side. But I’m getting a breastpump brought to me so I can at least give him mine, if not directly from the breast right off. I imagine in a day or so when he’s more with it, we’ll give it a good go. :)

He’s just the sweetest thing ever. He hardly ever cries, only during diaper changes so far. Of course, I know that’s pretty standard with newborns. He snuffles around and opens his eyes quite a bit already. I could hold him for an eternity I think.

Tags: birth, c-section, Liam
Filed under L'il Liam, Noteworthy |